U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 24, 2002

Dustin Bray

KEN KLAVON: Welcome, Dustin Bray. Tough loss. You said that it was better to lose the way you did than be blown out.

DUSTIN BRAY: Exactly. I'm proud of the way I played. I just couldn't make any birdies on back side. I didn't hit the ball close enough. I felt like I was rolling it well enough. And the only one that I had a good chance on was 11. I missed that one. Like I said, I was kind of disappointed the with the way I hit the golf ball coming in. But overall it wasn't that bad a day.

KEN KLAVON: Obviously, you leave a little disappointed, but can you sum up the week?

DUSTIN BRAY: It's been a great learning experience. Each tournament I play in, I pull something from. And I've been able to pull a lot from this week. So I look forward to the future and hopefully we can come back and play better next year.

Q. I know it doesn't ease the pain to look back at it this way, but if he putts on the second nine just great, instead of phenomenally --

DUSTIN BRAY: I mean, I made some putts on the front myself for par. There on what was it, four and five. I mean I can go on and on about what could have happened, but you know what, he played great and he beat me. That's one thing I'm not ashamed to say. I got beat today, and you know what, better to get beat by a guy that's playing great than a guy that's not playing great.

Q. What did you have for your second shot at 18, and what did you hit?

DUSTIN BRAY: I had a, let's see here, I believe it was 198, just tried to smooth a 4-iron and probably should have gone ahead and hit a hard five. But just came over the top of it. Right distance. Just one of those shots that you just wish you could take back. But didn't hit the chip shot like I wanted to. I knew I couldn't get closer than 10, 12 feet. Like I said, I felt good over my putt so I wasn't worried about having to make a 10, 12-footer. But it hit the hole. And then I hit the putt pretty much like I wanted to. It didn't move. I hit it real firm, as you all could tell but I meant to do that. I was, I saw kind of a strange break in it. And I thought it would still take a little bit if I even, if I hit it that firm and it just didn't.

Q. After you made the par putts on four and five and then you made the long putt on eight, how confident were you feeling after getting back to all square at that point?

DUSTIN BRAY: I mean, I've been doing that all week it feels like -- it's a great feeling getting over every putt and I think I'm going it make it. It's like I said, just didn't hit it close enough. The putter was there. And I felt like the whole short game was there really this week. I did a lot of good things getting up-and-down and things like that today. Just those approach shots I got to work on.

KEN KLAVON: You seemed to be pretty focused out there. How was it how with the nerves today?

DUSTIN BRAY: The nerves were awful last night for some reason. I couldn't get to bed until about 1 o'clock. But they settled down. And when I'm on the golf course I don't get nervous any more for some reason. I felt comfortable the whole day. I felt comfortable over every single shot on 18 today. That's one thing I'm really happy with. Is the fact that when I know I get in this situation again I know I'm going to be calm. Like I said, hopefully we can get back here next year.

KEN KLAVON: You mentioned yesterday that you were a little bit somewhat surprised with this summer. Have you exceeded expectations?

DUSTIN BRAY: Not really. I actually don't feel like I've had that great a summer. I expect a lot out of myself. Going into this year I'm expecting a whole lot. Last year I had a pretty good year. I had two collegiate wins and this summer I've had, I won a qualifying and then won the Cardinal. And I'm happy, don't get me wrong, but I still expect a lot more. And consistency is one of the main things. I just want to become more and more consistent in the future.

Q. Are you going to come out tomorrow and watch the final?

DUSTIN BRAY: I'll probably get home tonight. School started this week and I already missed a week so I probably need to catch up on some things. Back to the real world.

(Laughter.)

KEN KLAVON: All right. Thanks. Any other questions? Thanks.

DUSTIN BRAY: Thank you.

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